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Topic: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Read 13932 times)

Think I will pick up a quad core with decent graphics card in the near future.But might add a good graphics card and connect my music machine to the web before that for registration. Good to hear I don't need to leave it connected.

Lena and I went on a big hike on Mt. Hood, after which I was so tired I enjoyed a nice, long Skyrim session. I'm 30th level now.

I've shifted my money-making and skill-leveling efforts from alchemy to smithing, and my smithing skill is now 100th level so I can make dragon and daedric and the other top variations of armor and weapons. Next I'll level up my enchanting skill, and try to make some extremely high-end self-made gear with added enchantments.

I think I've set aside the main quest for too long and need to get back to it. In fact I haven't been questing as much as I've been traveling around, buying alchemy ingredients and iron ingots and other raw materials for my alchemy and smithing "practice." Now that my smithing is maxed-out I won't bother making a million iron daggers any more.

Level 39 now. I've completed the Mage's College quest line, which takes you to some interesting places and adds some interesting twists to the story, in addition to a grandly cinematic finish.

I've been trying to clear out some of the Misc. quests, as that is just getting ridiculously full. My problem is, I want to stop and see everything along the way, and there is so much to see here. Or I just have a short attention spa…..ooh, shiney.

Anyway, I should probably stop putting it off and focus on the main quest again, as well. I've also been working on my Smithing skills, as that is a very useful trade in the game. I use it to outfit my companion, as well, so she's a little better protected, although it doesn't seem to keep her from constantly setting off traps in dungeons. Now if only I could make Horse Armor for my suicidal mounts.

While rummaging around the Northern Coast, listening to the wind whipping around the icebergs, I turned to watch the sunset:

I'm level 34 now (around 65 hours played), and it seems like the rest of you, I've barely scratched the surface on the main quests. It's just too easy to start traveling in one direction and get lost in the world.

I picked up an ASUS i7 gaming laptop, 17.3", which runs it comfortably on High.Amazing graphics! Really is a remarkable world !I've only just started playing ... my teenage daughter is already many levels above me

I picked up an ASUS i7 gaming laptop, 17.3", which runs it comfortably on High.Amazing graphics! Really is a remarkable world !I've only just started playing ... my teenage daughter is already many levels above me

There's no hurry. You can enjoy it at your own pace. This is one game that really does make you want to stop and smell the Red Mountain Flowers.

Level 47 now. The things I've seen. And more I still haven't yet. Last night I saw a ghostly 'Headless Horseman' running in the night after his spectral mount. They led me on a merry chase through a huge chunk of Skyrim, then disappeared in a graveyard. I have no idea what that is about, yet.

I had a similar thing happen where I saw a ghost amid some trees at night. I chased for a minute or so, and it led me to an old grave where there were some bandits (looting it). I killed them, and then looted it myself. Silly ghost, thinking I was honourable or something.

There's no hurry. You can enjoy it at your own pace. This is one game that really does make you want to stop and smell the Red Mountain Flowers.

This is really true, and people who haven't played or seen the game may think this is just a joke -- well, the part about "smelling" the flowers is a joke, of course -- but one of the joys of this game is just exploring the landscape, finding the different kinds of plants that grow in different parts of the realm, and looking out over some of the incredible mountain viewpoints.

The same was true in Oblivion, but Skyrim is even more beautiful. Sometimes I take a break from "playing" and just explore, not seeking adventure but just... looking around.

I heard there was a fair amount of issues with the game still that you have to find/use some mods to make it more playable? This may be due to the persons computer but that's what I heard. I been holding off buying it cuzz I never finished the prior one and already play enough on Perfect World International online (and need to fini one vanquish quest in GW to get 2 more titles then try and grind the cartographer quests out (95+ % on all 3 maps...)).

I just rebuilt my box w/i5 2500K CPU, 16Gb corsair vengeance, still same HDD's, new Corsair HX650 PSU and stock cooler (kept zalman off to side for time being as I don't plan on oc'ing and it runs low 30c at idle). Video still XFX GTS-250 1GB PCI-e card I bought last year or year before. No plans on blowing $400+ on new graphics card for awhile.

The biggest problem was that the shipped game was limited to using 2 gigs of ram, which would cause it to crash later on (especially if you were using high resolution texture mods). They've since fixed that in the latest patch so the game is very stable now.

However in saying that, the longer you wait, the better the experience is going to be. They've said they will be supporting the game for a while, fixing small bugs and whatnot.

Do you need a super PC for this game? I only have a modest ASUS laptop that I purchased a few months ago. I suppose to really enjoy a game like this, you need a desktop unit with tons of RAM, a super deluxe sound card and video graphics card, etc etc etc, right?

Are any of the "hot" PC games any good at all on baseline PCs?

I suppose I should hope the answer is "no" so I don't go getting hooked on games again...I can't afford any kind of gamer PC, so if they don't run on my crummy laptop, at least my checkbook is safe.

My 15 year old just got this game for Christmas for his PS 3, I am only level 6, but I just stayed up with him 2 nights in a row until 1:30 playing. It started with hey Dad just make a character for fun...

Logged

"I liken good ambient to good poetry ... enjoyable, often powerful, and usually unpopular" APK

Smithing -- Buy all the iron ore and ingots you can find and make endless iron daggers. Buy several silver and gold ingots and make rings and necklaces for enchanting, below. Every time you kill an animal that leaves a skin, take the skin and rather than selling it, practice tanning it (at a smithing location with a tanning rack) into leather, then create leather strips from some of these.

Enchanting -- Buy lots of cheap soul gems, fill them using soul trap. "Disenchant" some of the magical items you find, in order to learn the enchantment they contain. This destroys the item, but lets you enchant new items (see rings and necklaces you created through smithing practice) with that same enchantment. Creating a new enchantment uses one item (apparel, jewelry or weapon) and one filled soul gem. I made lots and lots of "fortify two-handed" silver rings.

Alchemy -- Pick up every single flower, mushroom or other ingredient you find. Every time you visit a town, find the alchemist's shop and buy all the inexpensive ingredients they have. As you level up, the potions you create will be worth more, and it will be worthwhile to purchase the more expensive ingredients. But to start, don't bother buying ingredients that cost 350 just to make a potion to sell for 24. To discover alchemical properties of new ingredients, you can taste them, or find "recipes" that tell you which ingredients to combine to make potions that work. Gradually you will know the 2nd, 3rd and 4th powers of all the ingredients, and will be able to make potions out of everything you find. Then the potions will become your biggest source of income.

Haven't been able to play because of the holidays, but now I'm home, I can finally get back to the adventure.

As Mike mentioned, Smithing and Alchemy are probably the best crafts in the game to learn and improve. Creating your own armor and potions is a huge advantage. Granted, you'll still find lots of special armor and weapons during your travels, but it's nice to have a backup plan. Another thing about crafting in Skyrim is that it seems to be a lot easier to grasp than in past Elder Scrolls games, although, if real alchemists sampled their wares as much as I do, I'd think their life spans weren't that long; "Hey I wonder what this plant does?" "Dude, eat it, and find out."

Skyrim can be pretty demanding on hardware, but it does have lots of tweaks you can take advantage of. This has been the case with every ES game since Daggerfall. As already pointed out, the game's developer, Bethesda, has patched the game's initial problems with memory addressing and it is much more stable now. This will continue for a long time, since Bethesda has big plans for Skyrim beyond the initial release. In addition to bug fixes, there will be new content patches, as well as the inevitable expansion or two, and the Creation Kit, the tool used to build the game, will be released Real Soon™, and the mod community will then create years' worth of content for the game. So, if you think about it, buying the PC version of the game now is an investment that will keep paying for itself.

Having said all that, I can't blame anyone for not wanting to deal with the PC glitches and going with the console versions of the game(all official patches are pushed out automagically through PSN and XboxLive). Trying to keep up with the latest hardware advances is almost impossible, and it's easy to get caught up in an endless cycle of what I call 'upgrad-icide.' I have't built a custom box in about 10 years now, and I'm currently running Skyrim on an Alienware M11x laptop. Certainly not top-of-the-line, but it does have a decent CPU and a pretty good graphics card(Nvidia GT335M), which is key for these kinds of games. I've got it plugged into a 24" external display, so I have enough horsepower to run the game decently and show off the occasional cool screenshot. It's not bleeding-edge, but it's sufficient for a few years' worth of decent gaming without breaking the bank.

The key for these games is having enough system memory in Windows (at least 4GB of RAM) and a decent video card with at least 1 GB RAM onboard, neither of which are very expensive these days. But if you'd prefer to avoid the headaches of tweaking your computer, you can just get the PS3 or Xbox360 versions of the game, and you'll still have a great time.

Because I've finally met that goal of maxing out those 3 skills, I'm focusing more on quests again. I'm spending more time in Markarth on the Forsworn cult quest, and I bought and furnished a house there. It's cool to have enchantment and alchemy tables in my own home!

Been distracted the last few days by Real Life™ but hoping this weekend will allow for some game time.

I finished the main quest and it was pretty epic in the end. Nice payoff. That's about all I'll say about it.

The great thing is that the game's not over. There's still a lot I haven't done yet: I've yet to make a choice between the Stormcloaks and the Imperials, I haven't started the Dark Brotherhood questline, haven't gotten married(yes, you can get married in the game) and I haven't yet been to Falkreath. I own a house in Whiterun, Riften, and Solitude and am currently working on the Markarth quests. I'm still a couple points shy of maxing out Smithing, but I'm a master at Archery(I'll put your eye out at 100 yards) and one-handed attacks.

Just exploring and looking for all the little nooks and crannies in the game is still fun. Recently, a dragon attacked Solitude after I'd just bought my house there. I didn't think dragons attacked while you were in a hub city and it was pretty epic to see the guards come out en masse and help me take down the dragon. Then they all stood around and thanked me for killing it.

Bethesda just announced that a new patch for the game(on all platforms) is incoming to address various game glitches, but even better, the Creation Kit, the tool used to create the game is being released for the mod community to create new content for Skyrim on the PC. Even without the CK, there have been some incredibly creative and resourceful mods and fixes for the game that just make the experience that much better. It's only going to get better over time. And we still haven't yet heard how Bethesda plans to expand the game, although the rumors are interesting....